Recent commercial mobile information terminals such as HHTs (Hand Held Terminal) and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) have a function of displaying a signature window that includes an input area and enabling a user to make a handwritten signature in the input area of the displayed signature window, in addition to a function of generating and displaying a report slip for work requested by the user, for example (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2002-7934 and 2000-36049).
Specifically, when an operator pushes a Sign button on the window on which the report slip is displayed, a signature window that includes an input area is displayed as a pop-up. The user, in the case of judging that the contents of the report slip are correct, can electronically make a handwritten signature, by using a touch pen, for example, in the input area of the signature window. When the user or the operator presses a Done button on the signature window after the handwritten signature is finished, the user's handwritten signature displayed in the input area of the signature window and a signature field of the report slip displayed on the window are combined. As a result, a report slip in which the user's handwritten signature is combined with the signature field is generated.
Such electronic handwritten signatures are made by users in various situations besides the above process of confirming a work report slip, such as a process of confirming a statement slip for a product that a user has purchased using a credit card, or a process of receiving courier delivery, for example.
However, problems such as the following exist when a user makes a handwritten signature in the input area of the above conventional signature window.
That is, users have been concerned about misuse by a third party as a result of the signature portion, in the case of having made a handwritten signature, being saved as electronic data, and the signature portion saved as electronic data being duplicated or edited. Concerned users have also felt a psychological resistance to handwritten signatures themselves, and, consequently, actually refused to make a handwritten signature.